Widely panned for rehashing the old slur about women comedians not being funny, David Letterman's comedy booker Eddie Brill is now being replaced, Mirth Magazine reported Tuesday. Mirth says he's been dismissed for "speaking to the press without authorization," (not for espousing embarrassing opinions) though CBS isn't commenting. But Brill came in for wide criticism after a New York Times profile last week in which he embarrassingly defended the shortage of female comics on The Late Show. "There are a lot less female comics who are authentic ... I see a lot of female comics who to please an audience will act like men." Offensive, sure, but he's not the first to make that silly (silly "stupid," not silly "haha") claim. His opinions are particularly important though since, as the guy in charge of booking stand-up comics who appear on Letterman, The Times profile called him "the most influential comic you have never heard of." And Brill told Mirth, "It is time for me to accept the consequences of my printed words … and to learn from this. I apologize to all who have been affected by this." So at least he's being appropriately humble. Apparently a Late Show staffer will now scan comedy clubs and invite comics to audition in front of the show's producers, moving the decision-making process away from a "king-maker" (not queen-maker) model. Brill will probably still act as a warm-up comedian for the crowd, perhaps making him just another comic most people have never heard of.

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